With the help of men who also believe in our cause, American women have come from a place where we were seen but seldom heard to a situation in which capable women can credibly run for president and preside over Congress.

This does not mean that such women — or the rest of us seeking to be equal — are free of hurdles. On the contrary, women like Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi are widely disrespected, especially in the conservative climate that has clouded the nation’s perspective since Ronald Reagan. Determined women competing in the real world, and trying to survive within their professional and personal circles, understand that they often walk in minefields of lasting prejudice.

What is sometimes worse, especially for a woman like me, who has toiled in the vineyards of female equity for more than a quarter-century, is the notion that we ought to somehow just accept that some women-haters cannot be changed and should, therefore, be tolerated. It is difficult to imagine anyone asking for such tolerance regarding a racist or an anti-Semite.

Only the gay community (which has been more victimized by hatred than women) can really understand how women feel about their endless battle. Gay men and lesbian women, in fact, have always been well-represented in the ranks of the women’s rights’ and other human rights’ movements. They know firsthand how bigotry stings, and, sometimes, even kills.

Though a woman can now seriously run for the highest office in the land, excel as a business leader, and even put the fear of God into those who would oppose her, we are probably decades away from similarly widespread openness about sexual orientation, in political races and elsewhere.

A few courageous men and women have run for office “out of the closet” — and many have been elected and re-elected — but legions in the public and private sector still hide under a cloud of marriages of convenience, steadfast denials, and even blackmail.

Women have no choice. Short of choosing to dress like a man, write under a male pseudonym, as 19th-century authors sometimes did, or go the full route of sex-change, we are what we are — female. Love us or hate us, we have no closet.

We like to believe things are getting better. Certainly, women have more opportunities now than in the past. At the very least, we have legal options for fighting discrimination in the courts. But I worry that the advancement of women, like Hillary and Pelosi, will give the false impression that we have arrived (or, as some would see it, “gone too far”).

Full equality still eludes women, as it does our gay neighbors. For the sakes of our grandchildren, we must keep working for a day when “gender” and “sexual orientation” are as valid as “race, color, or creed” in the litany of unacceptable reasons for holding a person down.

The wrong stuffYou can’t blame Democrats for feeling optimistic. In 2005, George W. Bush staggered through as rough a stretch as any modern president has experienced.

Women on the verge At next week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver, Hillary Clinton’s delegates will get just about everything they’ve wanted — aside from the nomination of their candidate, of course.

Rallying cries Though the press focuses on organization, tactics, and fundraising, campaigns are won by unifying ideas.

Five alive After a historically long pre-caucus campaign, the 2008 race for the presidency is finally in gear in Iowa.

Moving On When AIDS Project Rhode Island opened its doors in 1985, President Reagan had still not publicly uttered the word “AIDS.”

Clinton vs. Obama As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue in a fight-to-the-finish, the debate over the value of the Electoral College system again gathers steam.

Gay old time Many people take for granted that the divide between gay culture and mainstream culture is as thin as the latex of an expensive condom.

Brain gloss The merger of thought and glossy spreads of girls in streaming, DIY couture.

California matters For four years, and 10,000 same-sex nuptials, Massachusetts has had a monopoly on gay marriage in the United States.

Sisyphus, the Dems, ’Gansett, and the Sox University of Rhode Island economics professor Leonard Lardaro has joined an evocative phrase to describe the state’s seemingly perpetual budget problems: Rhode Island and Sisyphus Plantations.

FERRARO, A PHOTO, AND A LEGACY | March 30, 2011 Geraldine Ferraro's photograph stands proudly in a silver frame, inscribed to my daughter with the words, "You are my hero."

TWO MURDERS AND AN UNHEEDED CALL | December 29, 2010 When Rhode Islanders mention former Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Fay, they often focus on the scandal that forced him to resign from the bench.

THE DEATH OF IRISH-ITALIAN POLITICAL ENTITLEMENT | September 22, 2010 Angel Taveras may soon be Providence’s first Latino mayor. But his victory in the recent Democratic primary is much more than a triumph of the city’s growing Hispanic population.

RHODE ISLAND’S BIRTH CONTROL CONTRETEMPS | July 07, 2010 Recently OB-GYN Associates, a respected women's health care practice with offices in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, admitted to Rhode Island Department of Health officials that it had implanted in patients birth control intrauterine devices (IUDs) apparently manufactured in Canada and not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

TURNING IN THAT LOW-NUMBERED PLATE FOR A PINK ONE | May 19, 2010 Low-numbered plates may be Valhalla for Rhode Island’s vainglorious. But they are hard to come by. So for the average driver looking for attention, “vanity” and “special category” plates are the way to go.